Pre-Code Hollywood

(1933) Bombshell Comedy/satire - A glamorous film star rebels against the studio, her pushy press agent and a family of hangers-on. By starring in this movie, Jean Harlow was popularly referred to as The Blonde Bombshell. There are a couple of glitches in the film - the result of damage, not censorship. There is a restored version, but I don't have it.

(1933) You Made Me Love You A rich American businessman in London makes believe he's lost all his money so that his daughter will marry a composer. So long as you're in the mood for vaudevillian British humour, then this is a hilarious comedy.

(1940) The Mark of Zorro A young Spanish aristocrat must masquerade as a fop in order to maintain his secret identity of Zorro as he restores justice to early California. One of the best versions of Zorro, the climactic duel between the hero and villain is perhaps the best swordplay committed to film during the silver screen era.

(1936) The Lonely Trail Though he fought for the North in the Civil War, John is asked by the Governor of Texas to get rid of some troublesome carpetbaggers.

(1933) Private Detective 62 An ex-government agent has become a down-and-out private eye. He falls for a woman he has been hired to frame. Another classic that I couldn't get a decent copy of, until I came across this version recorded from TCM.

It may be possible this is a regional thing because it's not blocked for everyone. Alternatively... - someone has a stick up their ass about adult movies being degenerate so keep reporting it. - my account is on some sort of monitor list by Telegram, but I would expect that to completely shut a channel down just like happened with the Cult Classics channel. I will continue to share for those that can still access, but to those who are having problems - sorry, but I'm not going to waste any more time creating any more channels - c'est la vie.

(1933) Ex-Lady Although free spirit Helen Bauer does not believe in marriage, she consents to marry Don, but his infidelities cause her to also take on a lover. Starring Bette Davis, with a cleavage on a couple of the costumes that would have fallen foul of the Hays Code had the movie been made 18 months later.

18+ Backup Comments... https://t.me/+UR4-Gsod4NUwODY8 Videos... https://t.me/+Fj7GgjVf7ro4Njg8

(1933) The Emperor Jones Unscrupulously ambitious Brutus Jones escapes from jail after killing a guard and through bluff and bravado finds himself the emperor of a Caribbean island. Trigger Warning: Liberal use of the 'N' word in this movie

(1933) Night of Terror The heirs to a family fortune are required to attend a seance at the spooky old family mansion. However, throughout the night members of the family are being killed off one by one. This is the best quality version out there - c'est la vie.

(1934) The Man Who Knew Too Much An ordinary British couple vacationing in Switzerland suddenly find themselves embroiled in a case of international intrigue when their daughter is kidnapped by spies plotting a political assassination. Hitchcock was to do a colour version in 1956, but this is his original take, which some feel is more sinister than the remake, probably in no small part due to the stellar performance by Hungarian actor Peter Lorre - his English was so bad at the time that he learned a lot of lines phonetically (copying the sounds without understanding what he was saying).

(1938) The Lady Vanishes While travelling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl realizes that an elderly lady seems to have disappeared from the train. Probably my favourite b&w movie after I discovered as a child that it wasn't just old Bogart movies that were worth a watch from the silver screen... ...I've got to hand it to the BBC back before cable TV bought up all the movie rights, I used to watch a lot of old movies on BBC2 and got to see the sort of stuff I liked and the stuff I didn't.

(1935) The 39 Steps A man in London tries to help a counter-espionage Agent. But when the Agent is murdered and the man stands accused, he must go on the run to save himself and stop a spy ring which is trying to steal top secret information. This is the original screen adaptation that all later versions have copied - while the novel is great, this added changes to make the film a more exciting experience e.g. more action and the introduction of female characters.

We've been straying quite far from the pre-code era, but some movies are simply too good to ignore that still fit the general vibe that pre-code movies delivered. One director that enjoyed toying with the censors was none other than Alfred Hitchcock, and it just so happens that he directed two of my favourite suspense movies from the 1930's... - The 39 Steps in 1935 - The Lady Vanishes in 1938 Both movies have a scene in which the main focus is the lead female's legs - The Lady Vanishes at the beginning in the hotel for as long as he was allowed to show them right down to the second, but it is the (shorter) scene in The 39 Steps that caused a row with the censor. With the Hays Code enforced just a few months before, Hitchcock presented a scene in which the lead female had to remove her wet stockings in order to dry them at the fire... ...but the problem was that she was handcuffed to the hero at the time, and so in the process of removing her stocking, she's dragging the hero's handcuffed hand up and down her exposed thigh. Hitchcock argued that the scene was integral to the story and the censor actually allowed the scene without modification.

Oh, I just realised that the official 1946 release of The Big Sleep was never posted to pre-code, so here's a link along with the other "big" Bogart movies - The Maltese Falcon and Key Largo.

(1944) The Big Sleep (the pre-release version) This version is not as good a thriller than the final version, but it is considered better for telling the story more clearly. We get a bit more Martha Vickers as little sister Carmen (not all of her deleted scenes are included because she basically kept outshining Lauren Bacall who had all the Hollywood connections).

(1947) Out of the Past A private eye escapes his past to run a gas station in a small town, but his past catches up with him. Now he must return to the big city world of danger, corruption, double crosses and duplicitous dames. - Robert Mitchum - Jane Greer - Kirk Douglas I'm not sure it gets much better than this... wall-to-wall femme fatale - as much as I'd love to think I'd resist her charms, I'm sure she'd have me wrapped around her little finger, hehehe.